Facing mongols in the desert

[Wolfwindrunner]

At my current game as Spain I'm almost far enough to face the mongols. I just entered gunpowder age, got basilisks and other cannons but no handgunners yet.I have taken over Cairo to be my central point against egypt and the mongols (never battled them before). I want to attack them in open country. Can anyone give me some advice on what kind of units I shall bring to the field against the mongols? They have many archers and archer horseman, I was thinking about bringing my own missile cavalry jinetes. combined with spearman and cannons.
PS: Why do enters not work when I post a thread, everytime after posting my whole message is glued together?

[Kallum]

Jinetes/mounted crossbowmen and lots of pavise crosbomen. and some infantry forces then you should be allright

[The Noble Lord]

Don't face the Mongols in the open field battles, go the nearest city/castle/river/mountain pass and face them there.

[Silent Assassin]

Don't face the Mongols in the open field battles, go the nearest city/castle/river/mountain pass and face them there.

That or what was said above alot of good missile units with enough of long range as per Mongols as good ones

[eggthief]

yes, regular spearmen will be crushed by their heavy cavalry, u need pikemen to survive the mongol charges.

[Tsarevna]

In open country, I think I'd try a 100% jinetes army. I have won custom battles against the mongols with 3/4 jinetes, 1/4 mounted crossbowmen, but you don't need the crossbowman, they are the weak link.

Jinetes are effective against armor, and should slaughter even the heavy cav.

Don't let the archers have much time to shoot at them, just take half of your jinetes and run them full-throtle at the archers, disable skirmish mode, and enable fire-at-will. Don't right click on the archers, however, you DO want a charge so do a alt+right click to charge them.

When you charge with fire-at-will enabled, you will throw javelins before colliding with the enemy, this is ok if you have only 2 units of jinetes going for a target. When you have a horde like this, it's sometimes better to disable fire-at-will during a charge because the guys in the back throw javelins right into the backs of the jinetes already fighting. Use digression.

You will have no trouble routing the mounted archers first, and you will take some losses, having groups of jinetes down to 12 men or so. Use the smaller groups of jinetes to run the mounted archers off the feilds. Don't let them escape or they will regain courage and come back to fight.

Now it's time for the heavy cav. What you should have done at the start of the battle is send the other 1/2 of the jinetes into skirmish + fire at will mode, and get them to run the cavalry after them. Be careful not to let them get stuck in a corner or they will die. Run the heavy cav around, pick em off with the javelins, then suddenly disable both skirmish and fire at will mode and charge the heavy cavalry in huge mobs. Once they route, do the same thing...use the small units of 9 jinetes or whatever to chase the survivors away.

Tip: If your jinetes are chasing a bodyguard off the feild and the general is still alive, if it seems they won't make it to general before he escapes, enable fire-at-will mode and alt-R click to run after him. This means they'll throw javelins into his back once they close.

[Wolfwindrunner]

Thank you, those are some usefull tips.

I will try a full jinetes army, They can be easily retrained in all places. I will let you know if I succeed.

One army of mongols was near Cairo yesterday but I lost sight of him. Im afraid he might be heading to the west, to my weaker african cities.

[eggthief]

toggle_fow is your friend on that one.

[Wolfwindrunner]

The mongol invasion was bigger than I thought. They have conquered all the lands of egypt and are now heading my way. I could stop 1 wave of mongols in Cairo, but the 2nd was too much, and the 3rd wave was still waiting. Also the Tumirids arrived near Russia.

So I couldnt try the jinetes approach.